Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 13 - Starting your career in Google Ads

So you want to work in PPC? You've come to the right place. 

No question is off the table. In this episode, I'll tell you which Google Ads certifications matter, how to get a job in our industry, and how to price your services if you decide to go it alone. 

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent years working for other brands at Google, and now I work for you. This is Inside Google Ads, Episode 13, Starting Your Career in Google Ads.

Each episode, I answer three questions that you've asked me on social media, sharing my best strategies, tips, tactics, and examples so you can make your Google Ads more effective. 

Be sure to stay tuned until the end of the episode, where I'll share this week's Insider Challenge for you to solve. 

Our first question comes from Jonathan Gonzalez on YouTube. He asks, I had a question regarding Skillshop and the process that I should take to complete each certification. Do you think you can provide a walkthrough on which course to complete first and what sequence we should take each course? 

As of right now, there are nine official Google Ads certifications on Google Skillshop, and you can take some or all of them for free. They are Search, Shopping, Display, Video, Apps, Measurement, Creative, Offline Sales, and AI-powered Performance ads, which is PMax and some other stuff thrown in. 

Now, Google has been testing three professional certifications, which you would need to pay for and verify your identity. Those are in Search, Display, and Video. But as of when I'm recording this right now, that test is closed, so the only certifications you will be able to take on the official Google Skillshop are the free ones. 

I recommend starting with Search. That's the bread and butter of Google Ads, and that's the bread and butter certification. From there, two that you'll probably find most valuable are Measurement and then AI-powered Performance Ads, because PMax is definitely here to stay. 

Now, the Google Ads certifications are great because they are free. They're officially from Google, but they have some drawbacks. And the first is that the information in them is pretty out of date. 

I know because I generally keep up on redoing mine each year for my Google Partner status. And just for kicks, I like to do all the available ones so that I can talk to people about what to expect from them. 

I saw questions in 2024 about Broad Match Modifier, Smart Shopping, just a whole bunch of things that are not available. Similar audiences. You can't do that stuff anymore. 

So they are out of date and none of the certifications show you how to actually do things in the platform. They're great for that foundational, slightly out of date knowledge, but not to show you how things actually work. 

And so, of course, I have to plug here. That's the whole reason I created my membership course Inside Google Ads, because initially when people were like, “Jyll, you should create a course,” I thought, “Why? The certifications exist and they're free.”

And then once I did them, I said, “Oh, geez, this cannot be the only accessible Google Ads training out there.”

So if that sounds like you, you've done the certifications and you're looking for some in-platform Google Ads training from a trusted expert, that's me. You can check out Inside Google Ads at learn.jyll.ca. That's J-Y-L-L dot C-A. And the link is also in the episode description. 

Our second question today comes from an anonymous user on TikTok. They say, please, how do you get a job after getting the certificate? 

There are so many ways to work in the Google Ads industry, we'll call it. How can you make money with Google Ads? 

A lot of people make money with Google Ads, not by the Google Ads services themselves, but by selling their own products or services through ads. You may have an Ecommerce store, for example, and Google Ads is one way you find clients, so that's one way to make money with Google Ads. 

You can also become an affiliate marketer and get sales for other people's products or services using Google Ads and other marketing tactics.

And then, of course, you can offer Google Ads management as a service, whether you do that on your own, running your own business as a freelancer, or whether you do that working for an agency, working in-house for a brand or company, or working for one of the ad platforms themselves. 

I used to work on the platform side. I worked at Google. I highly recommend it. The pay was great. The benefits were great. The training was great. I've heard the culture is not quite the same now as it was a few years ago. Layoffs will do that to a company, but that's, you know, working in platform. It's probably going to be pretty cushy. 

Working for an agency is great because there's lots of training and you get to work with lots of client accounts and really cut your teeth. But I have heard (I've never worked at an agency) that it can be pretty terrible for culture and work-life balance, or lack thereof. 

Now, when you work in-house, unless you work for a very large company, you're probably going to be expected to have a diverse range of marketing skills, not just Google Ads. You could be responsible for running all ads across all platforms and also be responsible for SEO and content marketing, for example.

So working in-house means that Google Ads would probably just be one thing in your portfolio. Whereas if you work at an agency, you're more likely to be able to specialize in just one or two things. 

Now, how to actually get freelance clients? Well, although I have some thoughts on this, I wanted to go to the expert. And so I spoke recently with Jenna Warriner. 

She runs a successful marketing agency. She also has an awesome class called Magic Marketing Machine to help service providers grow their businesses through Instagram. And she's the host of the Shiny New Clients podcast.

I sat down with her recently to talk about Google Ads for Beginners, so you can check out the April 15th episode of Shiny New Clients to see that, but if you run a service-based business or you want to, you should tune in to Shiny New Clients. It's one of the only podcasts I listen to. 

So when I was with Jenna on a call, here's what she had to say about how to get freelance clients for your agency.

“Nothing beats the dopamine hit you get as a new business owner or freelancer when you first make a sale from someone who you don't know.

Like, it is such a rush. You're like, I just made a sale! Maybe you saw this sale come in through your email and you're like, who is this person? I don't know them. It's not my mom's friend. It's not my neighbor. It's so exciting. 

And the thing is, yes, that is like a milestone we want to work towards.

That is going to be a big day. We are going to get Big Macs to celebrate that win for you when it happens.

But there is absolutely nothing wrong with going to your current network and for that to be your initial client base.

So think about the people you know, the people you went to high school with, your mom’s cousin, the people who already follow you on social media, the people who used to work with you at The Keg. All of these people can be your first initial clients and it should be way easier to convert them because they already trust you based on you just being you and you just being wonderful, right? 

And so I think a lot of times people rush. I work in social media management and I help service-based business owners get clients, specifically from Instagram. And we rush towards that. And yeah, you know what, get on the platforms. For sure, stay top of mind, try and get stranger clients that you don't already know, but don't devalue your current network because when any business starts, that's who our first clients are.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. They trust you faster. They leave you wonderful testimonials. And then in most cases, they become your biggest referrers for you to get future clients.”

Thanks, Jenna. And to hear more from Jenna, you can tune in to the Shiny New Clients podcast wherever you're listening to this one. 

Our last question today also comes from an anonymous user on TikTok, and they ask, how do you price your services? 

Here's how I price my services, and then I'll share some other advice for how you might want to price your services. 

For my coaching calls, I charge an hourly rate. It's one price to book that call with me. I'm not going to say the price here because it tends to go up over time. So if you're listening to this in 2026, I don't want you to think you're still getting my 2024 pricing! But it's all on my website. 

And with a coaching call, I do no prep work. I do no post work. It's just you're paying for that hour of my time, and of course, the decade of expertise behind it. 

I also offer training at companies like 3M or Silk and Snow or Google. And so for that, I have a set fee that's four figures, because it's not just about the 60 to 90 minutes of me delivering that training. There's all the prep work that goes into the meetings and the scheduling and the post work and creating the content and all kinds of stuff like that. 

Then I have a set fee for audits. Again, that usually starts in the four-figure range, because even though I've gotten to the point where I can usually complete a Google Ads account audit within an hour, maybe up to two if it's a really large account, there's an outsized amount of value I'm delivering there, like proprietary things I'm sharing. So I charge four figures for that. 

I did not when I started. The very first Google Ads account audit I ever did when I started, I charged $150 US for it. So that client there in Ireland, they got a heck of a deal.

And that's how it works. When you're first starting out, you're probably going to keep your prices pretty low and you're probably going to charge hourly. 

When I first started doing coaching calls and charging for hourly things, my price at that time was $200 US per hour, and I charge nearly double that now. 

Once you've been managing things hourly and gain more experience, you might start by increasing your hourly rates, but at some point, you're probably going to want to move onto a set management fee. 

This gives you predictability. It gives your clients predictability. And now when you have a set fee, you're monetizing your expertise rather than monetizing your time. 

It's not about how many changes you're making in the account or how many times you're touching it. It's just the overall impact you're having on that business. 

Now, some things to keep in mind, setting up a new client on Google Ads takes a ton of time and is really different from the ongoing management. So I see quite a few people charge a setup fee for the first month, the first two months, and then the ongoing management fee. So that's one thing to keep in mind. 

And then some businesses do a revenue or profit share. I personally don't like to do that if I'm just running the ads. I don't want a portion of revenue because what if your website goes down on Black Friday? And now I'm not going to get paid because your website went down? Not a fan of it that way. 

And then some people do a share of ad spend. So if I'm managing your ad spend, I get 10% of the ad spend, right? But in order for that to work, you have to have good trust with your client. Otherwise, if you're asking for more budget, you don't want them questioning, do you want more budget so you can make more? What's going on here? 

So all in all, I recommend that if you're just getting started, hourly is probably good for you and then if your last three clients were all okay with the price and didn't question it, it's time to increase your prices. 

Once you feel more confident in how to do things and how long things are going to take you, you may then want to move on to more of a monthly management fee. 

It is a great time to work in PPC. PPC Survey is an organization that surveyed more than a thousand industry professionals and found that the number one challenge for agencies, and the number one challenge for companies, is finding PPC talent. 

And that's you. If you're listening, you are PPC talent and you are in demand. 

I actually got an email from one of my coaching clients recently. He had booked a call with me for help optimizing some ads he's running for a family member's business. He doesn't work in Google Ads, he was doing it for an older family member as a favor. But he'd been enjoying the process so much that he decided to go out and get some clients and build a little side hustle for himself. And that's great.\! There is so much opportunity to work in our industry. 

So for this week's Insider Challenge, here's my challenge to you. 

You're on a call with a prospective client, a business owner, and she says, “Why should I hire you?”

What do you say? Why should someone hire you to manage their Google Ads when there are thousands of freelancers and agencies out there? 

You can participate by sending me your response from any episode's challenge. The beauty of the Insider Challenge is there's no right or wrong answer, just an opportunity to stretch your brain on real-life Google Ads problem solving. 

You can shoot me an email to let me know at thegooglepro@jyll.ca, that's J-Y-L-L dot ca, or send me a voice note in my Instagram DMs. I'm @the_google_pro on Instagram.

What would you say if someone said to you, why should I hire you? I can't wait to hear from you, and you might get featured on an upcoming episode. 

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales, and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.

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